Are women invisible?

And if so, what can we, the mobile industry, do about it?

I've recently written about the lack of female speakers at Informa's upcoming Mobile Web conference. I've also been alerted that the Mobile Marketing Association's forthcoming conference in Budapest (also run by Informa) lacks female visibility. And then I discovered that the Mobile Web Megatrends conference is also suffering the same problem.

Why so few women speakers, panellists or moderators?

And don't tell me this is representative of the industry because I know it isn't - we have good female representation at Mobile Mondays, more women come to Swedish Beers now (and growing) and the women in the Women in Mobile Data Association are plentiful! I even hear along the grapevine that the MMA has a strong female contingent.

And yes, this is a particular bugbear of mine. But with good reason. So bear with me.

I'm fed up to the back teeth of conference organisers and their sponsors ignoring women in the mobile industry (Informa being a recent obvious culprit, but they are certainly not alone) and coming up with lame excuses as to why women aren't involved. And many of these events are actually organised by women which makes it even worse. Do women still defer to men? Do women need a license to speak up?

I'm not a bra-burning feminist by any stretch of the imagination. But come on, this is the 21st Century and we've had the vote a while now. Women make 80% of buying decisions, women are more prolific on the internet than men, women are driving social networking - why aren't they (we) visible at potentially game-changing events where real decisions are made about all our digital futures, when potentially, it will probably impact most on women's day to day lives than men's.

I don't expect to get to 50/50 but to get to 25% visibility would be a start and not unreasonable I'd have thought. Or am I deluded here?

And don't give me the comment 'well if it's a choice between a man and a woman speaker and the man's the better qualified speaker then we choose the man' because in *most* cases in my 8 year experience of attending mobile conferences and events, there are few 'brilliant' speakers on the circuit at all - male or female - so there isn't usually an issue of having to choose between them. And with different formats, different styles of speakers get a chance to shine and therefore it encourages diversity.

It still feels like women are pretty much invisible and that the mobile industry is still very much a boy's club. [And yes, I know it's not just the mobile industry - I can only tackle one sector at a time!]

So..

1. Do we need to rethink event formats to make them more accessible to women? And if so, what are those formats?

2. How do we boost the confidence of female participants so that they say yes more times than they say no when asked to contribute as a speaker, panellist, moderator, whatever?

3. How do we encourage women to take networking and conferencing at this level seriously and make it a core part of their jobs rather than something they do once in a blue moon?

4. How do we encourage companies to put women forward as speakers as often as, or sometimes instead of the men in their companies?

5. How do women network differently (particularly married women) and how do we incorporate male and female styles of networking at events without resorting to separatism or golf days for the boys and spa days for the girls? (Much as I enjoy a spa, I don't really fancy networking with other women whilst in a dressing gown. Where would I put my business cards, phone and notebook anyway? And it does just confirm existing stereotypes and ridicules them. Why don't we just have a shoe-shopping expedition?!)

As a woman, you might think I qualify to answer these questions. Unfortunately, I don't suffer from a fear or reticence of speaking at events. I don't work for a big company so I don't have a glass ceiling to break through (I've experienced it in the past though), so I don't necessarily understand some of what's going on here and why these problems persist or what to do about them. In many cases, women themselves, are ensuring these problems persist so I'm not laying the blame solely on men here.  It's deeply culturally embedded so I know it's not a simple issue. Therefore, I'm particularly interested to hear others views and perceptions - and that's from men *and* women please!

I do believe this is a problem. And I do think we can change it for the better if we want to and hope that if I keep piping up about it, something positive will happen.

Some further links here too (and it's worth looking at the comments and links to other posts to get the full picture):

http://technokitten.blogspot.com/2008/08/ilovemobileweb-awards-should-be-renamed.html

http://technokitten.blogspot.com/2008/08/ever-wanted-to-know-gender-and-age.html

I also spotted this upcoming group 'Needs Women Speakers' who are naming and shaming conferences who need more female speakers, and there's an accompanying blog post.

And I've started the discussion on the Oxford Forum too in the hope we may make some progress and find a way forward from this.

And Jason Kottke has been talking about diversity at web industry conferences and some of them are suffering the same problem - although many have healthy female coverage, showing that it is possible.

Technorati Tags: conference,diversity,gender,women

The usefulness of data collection

Every company seems to want your data these days - gender, date of birth, postcode, what you buy, what you like, who you hang with, how often you do all this. Yet what do they do with it?

Seemingly, very little.

Tell me, why did Sainsbury's think it was a good idea to send me a personalised email promoting nappies and baby goods?

I've shopped at Sainsbury's, offline, for over 20 years. And online, I've shopped with them a handful of times in the last 2 or 3 years I reckon.

So tell me, why would I want to stock up on baby food, accessories, wipes or toiletries?

I have never bought nappies in my life - not even for my nieces when they were born.

I am single.

I have no children. [Well not if you don't count my involvement with my local brownie pack in Tooting Bec. And they're not babies anyway.]

My shopping habits haven't changed. I still don't buy meat or cigarettes. I still don't buy baked beans or marmite. And I still don't buy Johnson's baby lotion or Pamper's.

Have they made an assumption because I've bought baby wipes a few times that I have a baby - even though I've bought them for use at a festival and I've never bought any other baby products? It's a tenuous link at best and anyway, I usually buy my baby wipes at Superdrug or Somerfield.

Or are they being super-clever... and they've worked out that a couple of my facebook pals have had babies recently?? I somehow doubt they're following me to that degree, and they certainly shouldn't be if I haven't given them permission.

If it's not going to be useful or used, why bother collecting the data at all?

Technorati Tags: data,demographics,data collection,targeting

Disqus comments aren't working on new posts

Technorati Tags: disqus,blogger,windows live writer

It's a glitch with blogger it seems if you use Windows Live Writer to write your posts (which I'm doing right now, because it's way easier to use than anything solely web-based).

Comments are here though and will stay here, it's just they're using the old blogger system rather than (my preferred) Disqus system. I guess when they've found a work around, I'll be able to do something about it. It looks like I'm not the only with the problem having done a bit of a Google-around.

Rest assured, I *do* get round to reading all the comments (eventually), however they come in and I appreciate that you take the time to both read and comment on my blog. And I hope you continue to do so.

A useful guide to SMS launched today

After announcing my upcoming course on mobile marketing earlier today, Laura from ExactTarget's PR team over in the States wrote me a lovely email asking me for my opinion on her client's new guide to SMS. Admittedly, on reading that the company behind the publication was a tech services company I thought the guide might be a bit dry, as tech guides can often be, but I'm very pleased to say, I was totally wrong on that score. It's an fresh take on SMS marketing in an easy-to-read format.

Laura says: "ExactTarget’s Field Guide to SMS is an easy-to-read manual that conveniently breaks down the numerous uses of commercial SMS into three groups including: alerts, updates and marketing messages. Perfect for marketers who wonder what possibilities exist for using SMS within their own organizations, the Field Guide highlights 15 unique business scenarios ranging from account activity and fraud alerts to confirmations and appointment reminders."

I say: "The ExactTarget team have put a lot of thought into the different cases for using SMS in a business context ranging from account activity alerts to VIP access and everything in between. Keeping with the 'Field Guide' and Nature theme, they've defined characteristics of the different 'species' of SMS messages and broken them down in each case by describing the Wildlife Commentary (real life usage scenarios), Defining Characteristics (an explanation of how that particular type of SMS works, Species Contribution (the benefits of using it), Diet (what data you need to make it work) and Habitat (where you're likely to discover this type of SMS). It's intended as an idea-starter rather than a comprehensive guide, but if it's a starting point you want, then this is as good a start as any."

It's a free download (in return for some contact information) from the ExactTarget’s Field Guide to SMS .

Technorati Tags: sms marketing,sms,mobile marketing

One-day course in Mobile Marketing in London - 16 September 2008

For those of you who are interested, I'm running a one-day course on mobile marketing for the lovely folks at E-Consultancy on 16 September in London near Old Street. It'll be a small class and we'll cover all aspects of mobile marketing from SMS to mobile web with plenty of time for in-depth discussion, knowledge-sharing and case studies. And yes, we'll even talk about the iphone effect. At the time of writing, this is my last planned public course for 2008.

The course is suitable for marketers at all levels, all I ask you to bring with you is a smile, a good attitude and a willingness to take part. It is not a technology course so there'll be no programming although there might be a few gadgets to look at if I can borrow some in time for the day. Previous delegates have been more than pleasantly surprised at how much they enjoyed the day.

I'm currently updating the case study section of the course and I'm always interested to be updated with new, interesting, relevant case studies. So if you have something to share - with images and some indication of results (why it was a success or failure), then I'm very interested to hear about it. You can contact me via email. Also if you have relevant mobile gadgets or gizmos to lend me for the day, please do get in touch. I'm thinking specifically upcoming handsets, a Flip camera (to demonstrate UGC), NFC handset/demo or anything else you can think of.

Technorati Tags: mobile,mobile marketing,mobile web,training,seminar,sms marketing

Mobile Marketing - London Seminar | Training | E-consultancy.com

RL Magazine - Know the Code

Technorati Tags: fashion,m-commerce,e-commerce,mobile web,retail,wap

I was just browsing the MyMart blog and spotted that Ralph Lauren has set up its own m-commerce site and is allowing customers to buy from it from a small selection of their ranges. You can reach the mobile site via QR code, texting in to a shortcode or going directly to the URL http://m.ralphlauren.com.

There is a common misunderstanding by high end fashion companies that their customers somehow aren't digitally minded and wouldn't dream of using the internet. I've no idea where they get that from but it certainly isn't true - Net-A-Porter and Vertu are testament to that. So I'm very pleased to see that Ralph Lauren is getting in on the mobile act.

I think the QR code thing is a bit of a red herring at the moment. The readers aren't embedded on most phones and it's a bit of a hassle to get the reader, download it, remember where it is, open the reader application, open the shutter and then take the picture of the barcode when it would be easier to text in to a shortcode or go directly to the URL. [Of course, it's a different thing once we have the software pre-installed and deeply embedded so our phones *know* when it can see a QR code and automatically give us the option to use it or not.] I digress.

I'm not a Ralph Lauren shopper (well save for a lovely pair of RL shades I got at TK Maxx and a liking for the RL fragrance Romance) so am probably not the target audience. The thought of wearing crisp white pants and a blue, red and white polo shirt fills me with dread. But I know others feel differently about these things otherwise RL wouldn't be doing nearly so well.

Anyway, I thought I'd take a closer look at the site to see what I liked (or not) about it.

First off we have the opening page. And it's just a list of banners rather than words or words and banners. And they're very difficult to read as the writing on them is tiny. If you're not familiar with RL, these may be a bit confusing anyway. There are written links further down but they don't relate to the banners and don't shed much more light.

Rather confusingly, the first option is for the QR code information. Now it seems to me that if you have found your way to the RL mobile website already, the chances are you don't need to use a QR code to get to it. As you can see below, the introduction doesn't help much either as you have to do more clicking to get to the information.

Leaving that to one side, I have a glance around at some of the other pages.

  It's not particularly inspiring and I'm not convinced huge amounts of time was spent putting the offering together.

The Definitive Guide to Ralph Lauren Style is useful and is good 'snacking' information.

The sales info is not terribly exciting - they're assuming the customer knows all about the brand and collections already, and quite frankly, I have no idea about the different collections so it would be useful to have a few words (and I mean just a few) to explain the difference between RL_Classics and The Ralph Lauren Collection as an example.

Now maybe most of the customers who find the RL mobile site are existing RL customers and know what they're after and what they're looking for without having to browse around. In which case, the site needs a search facility. The scenario is that you're looking at Vogue, Tatler or some other fashion magazine and see the Ralph Lauren advertisement with the bag you absolutely must have *now* and you're short on time. A search facility to enable that sale would be invaluable. And when you consider the price for each item in stock, a handful of sales are very important (dresses at $2,000, sandals at $700 and an imported bag at almost $20,000 and the basic polos at $75 it soon mounts up).

On the actual shopping page for the polo shirts, you were given the option as to what colour you might want and asked you your size, but there was no link to a size guide. And for the really expensive items, wouldn't you want a bit of personal service and be connected by telephone to your local sales advisor?

So, 10/10 for bothering to do something on mobile but 5/10 for implementation. More thought needs to go into who the customer is, when they might use a service like this and what service that should actually be.

RL Magazine - Know the Code